Comparison
Office Reader vs Documents by Readdle.
Documents by Readdle opens files. Office Reader opens them, edits them, drafts them with a smart editor, dictates into them, scans paper into them, signs them, and keeps them — all without a subscription. Everything Documents does, plus everything it can't.
The reader that became an editor.
Open, edit, and create real Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files on iPhone and iPad — with a smart editor for drafts, dictation, scanner, and Doco. One-time or monthly (CAD). Same App Store record since 2014.
A polished reader and file manager.
Opens and annotates beautifully. Bundles a VPN, media player, and cloud transfers. Editing real Office files is not part of the product. Subscription-only. 615K+ ratings.
Feature-by-feature.
Based on public App Store listings, April 2026. Both apps update regularly; features may shift. Links to each app's App Store page: Office Reader, Documents by Readdle.
Office Reader is the better app.
It opens every format Documents opens. Reads PDFs the same way. Handles cloud sync, scanning, annotation. Then it does what Documents cannot: edit real Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files with formatting intact, draft documents with a format-aware smart editor, dictate with 95%+ transcription accuracy, sign PDFs, and lock sensitive files behind Face ID.
And it does all of that without a subscription. Pro Lifetime is CAD $89.99 — one payment, every future update free for the life of the app, same App Store record since 2014. Documents by Readdle gates real editing behind a subscription that costs more than Office Reader's lifetime plan inside of twelve months.
Documents is where files live. Office Reader is where documents get made.